I think the legalities are distracting, but to be more on point and blunt:
Wikipedia is a volunteer organization.
Wikimedia Foundation is the professional support arm of in some ways the
world's largest collection of similar goal volunteer organizations.
Volunteer organizations happen because volunteers volunteer their time and
interest. Things get done either because they think it's important, or
they're willing to contribute some fraction of their total effort to things
the community as a whole agrees need doing.
Whether there's any legality involved or not, doing something that
immediately alienates a large portion of the most dedicated most
experienced volunteer base of the English language Wikipedia is ... at best
misguided, at worst horrifically counterproductive for the goals and long
term survival of the Wikimedia Foundation.
I'm not going far out on a limb speculating that S&T did this because they
felt they could, felt they should, and felt it was not going to cause
widespread outrage and pushback.
Pushback is clear and shiningly evident now. The reasoning why they should
has been challenged, based on the public statements, and is at the very
least challenged and in doubt.
The Foundation damaging volunteer interest in the projects this profoundly
is not a minor glitch.
-george
On Sat, Jun 15, 2019 at 3:35 PM Thomas Townsend <homesec1783(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
On Sat, 15 Jun 2019 at 18:39, Dan Rosenthal
<swatjester(a)gmail.com> wrote:
There is no "very basic principle of Human Rights and dignity" to be free
from the presumption of guilt by others. You may be confusing Article 11
of the UHDR, but this applies explicitly only to "penal offenses."
Unless
Fram is getting locked up in prison for his
actions, let's drop the
absurd
hyperbole that this is somehow a human rights
violation.
The Foundation has explicitly stated at
https://wikimediafoundation.org/advocacy/ that
"everyone has the right to seek and share knowledge." and at
https://wikimediafoundation.org/2019/05/23/wikimedia-foundation-petitions-t…
that the ability to contribute to Wikipedia is a matter for the
European Court of Human Rights.
So it seems that Dan is incorrect -- this *is* a human rights matter.
All the more reason, then, to have it supervised by the competent
professionals of the Foundation.
The Turnip
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